That's the same problem in disguise. The reason they don't do the "our product is great" research themselves is because if they did people would switch their br

That's the same problem in disguise. The reason they don't do the "our product is great" research themselves is because if they did people would switch their brains on and properly evaluate it. They pay universities (i.e. government funded organizations) because of the false belief in our society that government funding means universities are neutral, trustworthy, competent research institutions, when in fact they are really quite corrupt and filled with easily bribed researchers who will publish basically anything if it means they get another paper or grant out of it. If/when the perception of government funded researchers finally aligns with the reality, businesses would stop doing that because there'd be no reputational misalignment to exploit.